0:00
They are desperately trying to keep you away from Bitcoin.
0:03
Doesn't it all just seem so obvious when you look around, hit piece after hit piece after hit
0:08
piece on Bitcoin? I just saw another one come out in the New York Times this week, which I'll
0:13
touch on a little bit later. They are trying so hard to keep normal people away from Bitcoin
0:18
and to get Bitcoiners to sell their Bitcoin. Meanwhile, while we might be experiencing a bear market
0:24
in Bitcoin's price, there is no bear market in Bitcoin adoption. While the mainstream media,
0:31
prominent traditional economists, goal bugs, and everyone else in between seems to be crapping
0:37
all over Bitcoin and desperately trying to get you to sell and run away as fast as possible,
0:42
the institutions and the big players. They are buying and they are hodling. That's what this
0:47
video is about. It's not a coincidence. They're trying to get your Bitcoin on the cheap. Do not
0:54
give it to them. I can prove this is happening. You're going to want to stick around.
0:57
Real quick, you're watching the sad stacker show, a Bitcoin show for people who think deeper about
1:02
money. I'm your host. My name is John aka the sad stacker. If you want to learn to stack smarter
1:06
and grow your conviction in Bitcoin, you hit the subscribe button and you can zap me sats via the
1:11
QR code on the screen using your lightning wallet. But I told you I have proof. Let me tell you
1:15
how this all clicked into place for me because I was already thinking about the thesis for this video
1:20
just because of all the negativity I keep seeing. There is so much fun, so much bad sentiment around
1:26
Bitcoin right now. Whenever something like this happens, I don't trust it. My spider sense is tingly.
1:32
What I mean is all of a sudden when there's an overwhelming majority of voices coming out of
1:37
the woodwork to push one narrative. We saw this last year with MSTY. We saw with Bitcoin treasury
1:44
companies. We saw it with Zcash. How are each of those doing now? By the way, there's this avalanche of
1:50
people all talking about one thing. I don't care if it's coming from Bitcoin Twitter or crypto Twitter
1:55
or tradfied Twitter or mainstream media. It's always very sus to me. When suddenly there's an
2:01
overwhelming amount of people just all saying the same exact thing. So I was already on alert with
2:06
just how much fun I've been seeing around Bitcoin in the last few weeks. There's no way to prove
2:10
that it's coordinated. It just has that smell to it. Some things fishy. Some things not on the
2:16
up and up. And as usual, what it all amounts to is someone's trying to get your Bitcoin. Someone
2:22
wants you to freak out and panic sell. And this time around, most of all, it seems like they really
2:28
don't want any normal people coming to buy Bitcoin. I mean, they want retail as far away from this
2:34
thing as humanly possible. And for what I can tell, it's working. There is no retail participation
2:41
in this cycle at all. The best anecdotal evidence I have for this is these viral videos of people
2:47
watching the Coinbase Super Bowl commercial where they're singing along to the Backstreet Boys.
2:52
And then all of a sudden, the Coinbase logo drops and they start booing viciously at the rug pull.
3:04
Most normal people from what I can tell at this point hate crypto. And they don't make any
3:13
distinction at all between Bitcoin and crypto. So this wide scale propaganda campaign is successfully
3:19
keeping normal people away from Bitcoin. And it seems to be successfully creating a ton of fear
3:25
uncertainty and doubt among even existing Bitcoiners. But meanwhile, there is a very important
3:31
signal coming through all this noise that tells you no Bitcoin is not dead. In fact,
3:37
Bitcoin adoption is stronger than ever. And I now have the evidence to prove it. I'm about to show
3:43
you the data that turned this for me from a pet conspiracy theory into a cold hard fact. Because
3:49
the highly respected Bitcoin exchange river just dropped a detailed report showing institutions
3:56
have continued to buy Bitcoin at a record pace even while the price was getting wrecked.
4:03
And the other day, an article in Bloomberg even admitted the same thing. The institutional scaffolding
4:09
around Bitcoin is holding up just fine. They put that out by the way just days after dropping
4:15
another semi-hit piece about how Bitcoin was losing its identity and all the narratives around
4:20
that are falling apart. The very same Bloomberg writers came back with a piece about how even though
4:26
Bitcoin shed a trillion dollars of value, the institutional scaffolding built around it didn't collapse
4:31
at all. And the ETF money has mostly stayed. So on one hand, you have sentiment and adoption among
4:37
retail is virtually dead. We may be experiencing a bear market in Bitcoin's price. But on the other hand,
4:44
the title of river's research report is there is no bear market in Bitcoin adoption. And the biggest
4:50
headline stat that they dropped was institutions last year in 2025 accumulated 829,000 Bitcoin.
4:59
That includes businesses, governments, funds, ETFs, etc. We're talking about structural adoption
5:06
from mainstream traditional big-time players. River also pointed out that RIAs registered
5:12
investment advisors are net buying. RIAs have been net buying for eight straight quarters.
5:19
And river estimates that they put about $1.5 billion per quarter into Bitcoin ETFs.
5:25
These are the people who decide what responsible adults can and should own. And they are buying.
5:32
River also pointed out that about 60% of top US banks are building Bitcoin products. And banks don't
5:38
typically build products for things they think are going away. They build products for things their
5:43
customers demand. B&Y, Mellon, PNC Bank, City Bank, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America,
5:52
Vanguard, all of these have flipped from a hostile negative or skeptical view to a positive view
5:58
in the last 12 months. River also pointed out that public companies are stacking. Bitcoin
6:03
adoption by public companies grew 2.5 times in 2025 with 194 public companies holding Bitcoin.
6:12
They also noted that nation state adoption is expanding with more new entrance in 2025.
6:18
So take a breath and zoom out. If Bitcoin was actually dead,
6:23
why are the most regulated, slowest moving, most reputation sensitive institutions on earth
6:30
accumulating it and building around it? They bought over 800,000 Bitcoin in 2025 alone.
6:37
Well, maybe you're thinking, well, but it's sold off even more in January and February of
6:40
2026. So maybe all those institutions started bailing in the last two months. And that's a good
6:46
question. And it brings me to a perfect example of how retail gets emotionally pushed around
6:51
by false narratives and propaganda. Do any of you remember Ben McKenzie? I won't blame you if
6:57
you don't because he hasn't been around for a while. But this is the actor from the OC who turned
7:02
into a self-appointed anti crypto white knight and was a notorious Bitcoin and crypto hater from
7:08
last cycle. Pretty sure he even famously lost $250,000 short in crypto stocks to try to prove
7:15
some point. And then he disappeared for a while. Until out of the blue, he popped up on my YouTube
7:20
algorithm last week with another Bitcoin is dangerous hit piece. Personally, to be honest,
7:25
I wouldn't really care if he was just going around targeting crypto. But of course,
7:30
like all these other lazy critics, he just refuses to acknowledge any distinction between Bitcoin
7:36
and the rest of crypto. So I am forced to destroy him, whether I want to or not. It's my duty.
7:42
And this recent video that he made with more perfect union who's done other hit pieces on Bitcoin
7:47
before was completely ridiculous. Not only was it just hyperbolic doomers and bulls**t,
7:53
but my biggest gripe with it was that it was based on a totally faulty premise to begin with.
7:58
I will spare you the whole video, but I will see if I can edit it down so you get the gist.
8:02
You may have noticed the crypto's crashing again. Thanks to loosening regulations,
8:05
people can buy financial products that give them exposure to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
8:09
through the regulated stock markets. But in October of last year, investors began to take some
8:14
risk off the table and sell their shares. The price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has
8:18
nose-dived. The Wall Street firms that issue them like BlackRock turn to the crypto exchanges
8:23
like Coinbase to actually sell the Bitcoin. Then the price starts plunging. What's the floor?
8:27
Well, zero. The problem with crypto being tied into our regulated financial markets is the
8:32
contagion effect. If crypto were to continue to crash violently, the selling of these assets
8:38
would push the prices of cryptocurrencies down, which can lead to the selling of other companies.
8:42
Here's hoping that the crypto crash we're currently experiencing doesn't take the rest of
8:46
the regulated financial markets down with it. Fingers crossed. Oh, very spooky stuff. 2008 bank
8:52
contagion style apocalypse caused by Bitcoin. Again, this is ridiculous,
8:56
fun, emotional manipulation designed to poison retail against Bitcoin and keep them far, far away.
9:03
Bitcoin is bad and you're a bad person if you buy it. And I would say generally it's working.
9:08
Retail is misinformed and emotionally driven. And these type of scary stories work on them.
9:13
Just look at the comments on that video if you want proof. But I wasn't buying his little narrative.
9:17
So I went and did the homework that he and more perfect union couldn't be bothered to do.
9:22
And here's the biggest problem with the little story they're trying to spin. Yes,
9:25
Bitcoin's price dropped about 50% in the last four months. But there was no mass exodus from
9:32
the ETFs. During this latest drawdown from about late January to mid February, total spot Bitcoin ETF
9:39
holdings dropped from about 1.36 million Bitcoin to about 1.31 million Bitcoin. So that's about
9:47
50,000 Bitcoin net outflows or about 3.7% of peak holdings during that crash window.
9:54
And if you zoom out and you look at it from the all time high, we touched back in October of 2025,
9:59
Bitcoin ETFs across the board are down about 100,000 Bitcoin or roughly 6 to 7% of peak holdings.
10:07
Meaning essentially a 93 to 94% hodl rate across all Bitcoin ETFs despite a 50% crash in price.
10:16
So the whole ETF death spiral that nuke's traditional markets story is complete made up both.
10:22
And the Bloomberg writers also said the exact same thing. ETF money has mostly stayed. Wall street
10:28
is still in. So what's really happening? Well, clearly retail is being fed fear while institutions
10:35
are demonstrating patience. And if I'm recalling correctly, wasn't there some famous investor who
10:40
once said markets are a device from transferring wealth from impatient to the patient? Yeah, that's
10:46
exactly what's happening here. It does beg one question, which is if these institutions are
10:50
buying who is selling to them and river answered that question to a lot of the supply has been coming
10:56
from long term holders, whales, early adopters of Bitcoin who are now distributing their coins into
11:02
a deeper, more liquid market, which is all very normal. We've covered that on this channel before.
11:07
That's actually market maturation. It's good for Bitcoin to see old whales distributing their coins
11:13
amongst new entrants. So here's my message. If your entire view of Bitcoin is based on the headlines
11:20
and the Twitter vibes and whatever your stupid uncle has to say at Thanksgiving, then you're not
11:24
going to make it. The headlines are designed to get clicks. Twitter is filled with bots and morons.
11:29
And your uncle probably thinks treasury bonds are still risk free. So it all adds up to this.
11:33
Somebody smarter than you, more patient than you, with more capital than you wants your Bitcoin.
11:38
So while the dummies are ignoring it, the loudest voices are trying to push you away from it.
11:43
Meanwhile, the actual structural story is distribution is expanding. The buyer base is deepening.
11:49
The ETF wrappers brought in a whole new class of capital. Banks are building around it.
11:54
Advisors are allocating and public companies and nation states continue adopting it.
11:59
Adoption is compounding, even if price isn't reflecting that yet. These people are out here desperately
12:06
trying to keep you away from Bitcoin, while they gobble up as much of it as they can.
12:11
The FUD gets loudest at the exact moment that patient capital wants your Bitcoin the most.
12:17
It's all right there out in the open. The most sophisticated allocators on earth,
12:21
building positions, while the big scary headlines try to bully you out of trading your dirty
12:26
debasing fiat for the hardest and best form of money ever known. So I'm not going to tell you what
12:32
to do with your money, but I do suggest that it might be a good idea to quit slacking and start stacking.